Monday, October 16, 2006

First entry. How long before I tire of talking to myself? One person in three with access to the internet keeps a weblog, so they say. But who reads all this output?

My native city has just been labelled the "stupidest" town in Britain. Apparently this conclusion is based on school exam results and academic qualifications obtained by the people of Hull. Well here's a couple of possible reasons why we fare badly on this particular scale:
1. We don't lie and bullshit about our qualifications like the majority of the population.
2. We don't suffer from "diploma disease". We don't seek the approval of the guardians of the nation's academic standards, perhaps (certainly, in my case) because we think those standards are so debased as to be worthless.

Change of subject - the veiled teacher. Well why not, everyone else has had their say?
It turns out that when this woman attended her job interview she was not wearing the veil she cannot leave home without. Do I detect a little money-making scheme here, a compensation award from an employment tribunal? There is another interpretation, one to which I'm inclined: in spite of her much vaunted modesty this woman is a publicity hound, a self-advertiser. If I'm right on this the final act will be her unveiling in the tabloid press in return for a substantial sum.
I'm sure that no Wahhabi fanatic is convinced of her sincerity. I can imagine them watching the telly and screaming, "Look at this harlot! She expresses her worthless opinions to an infidel male before the whole world. She goes out to work! She should be beaten with a stick no thicker than my thumb. No! We must stone her to death."

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